Henry Mosler Late 19th-Century Oil Portrait Painting

Item Details

An oil portrait painting on canvas by well-listed American artist Henry Mosler (New York/Ohio/France; 1841 – 1920). The portrait depicts a well-seasoned gentleman with a distinguished nose, a fatigued jacket, lovingly rumpled gray hair, and a twinkle in his eye, placed against a dark, richly contrasting backdrop. Artist’s initials are faintly monogrammed to the upper right, and Mosler’s name appears on a brass plaque to the base of the frame. This work is presented in a moulded wood frame with a gilt finish, equipped to hang.

During the mid 1870s, Mosler studied with the formidable Frank Duveneck at Duveneck’s newly established art school in Munich, along with many other Cincinnati-based artists, who became known as “Duveneck’s Boys”. The loose brushwork and scumbling paired with the sensual chiaroscuro in the portrait seen in the example here exhibits easily recognized characteristics of the Duveneck School painters. Duveneck himself painted a study of similar nature and possibly with the same subject. To see an example of this painting, see the link under Additional Information.

Mosler’s family were German Jews in Silesia (now Poland), and immigrated to Cincinnati, Ohio following political unrest in 1849. Mosler studied under Cincinnati artists including James Beard before gaining acclaim as a Harper’s Weekly illustrator during the Civil War. He spent his mid-career traveling between Europe and Cincinnati before settling in New York in 1894, focusing on portraiture and “peasant genre scenes”.

Condition

- painting has been restored with relining, inpainting and varnishing. Inpainting throughout much of the composition, heavy in some areas, and distorts monogrammed signature to upper right. Wear to frame.